Delay Repay · Great Western Railway · checked 25 September 2026
Delay Repay with Great Western Railway
GWR pays Delay Repay when you reach your destination 15 minutes or more late because a GWR train was delayed or cancelled, whatever the cause. You claim on GWR's own site, and it must receive the claim within 28 days. Here is what it pays and what the form asks for.
At a glance
- Pays from: 15 minutes late at your destination.
- Claim within: 28 days of the delay. GWR must receive the claim by then.
- Where: gwr.com, Delay Repay. Online is quickest and needs no account. Paper forms pay only by cheque, voucher or charity donation.
- Automatic: Automated Delay Repay fills in the claim for you on some tickets bought from GWR, if you opt in.
How much
| Late by | Single | Return | Season ticket |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 to 29 minutes | 25% | 12.5% | 25% of one journey |
| 30 to 59 minutes | 50% | 25% | 50% of one journey |
| 60 to 119 minutes | 100% | 50% | 100% of one journey |
| 2 hours or more | 100% | 100% | 200% of one journey |
Singles and returns are paid as a share of the whole ticket price, which is why the return column is half the single one until two hours. You never get back more than you paid, and the most any claim pays is a full day's travel.
Season, flexi and rover tickets
One journey's value is the ticket price divided by 10 for a weekly, 16 for a flexi season, 40 for a monthly, 120 for a quarterly and 464 for an annual. Carnets and rovers are valued at their price divided by the days they are valid. For a monthly or annual season on paper, the form wants a photo of the ticket and the photocard.
How to claim
Online at GWR's Delay Repay site is the quickest way. You do not need an account, though one saves your details and is needed for Automated Delay Repay and for appeals. One online claim can cover several passengers. Enter the train you planned to catch, not the one you ended up on.
The paper form is on GWR's site and at staffed stations. Post it to Freepost GWR DELAY REPAY. Paper claims are paid only by cheque, voucher or charity donation.
What the form asks for
- Your contact details and how you want to be paid.
- Proof of your ticket. A paper ticket: a photo or scan, or the receipt with journey, ticket type, price and ticket number. An eTicket: a screenshot or the booking receipt. A GWR Touch smartcard: an image showing its reference number.
- Oyster or contactless: a statement showing where you touched in and out and the cost.
- Where you started and were going, the booked departure time, and how late you arrived at your final destination.
How you are paid
Bank transfer, debit or credit card, cheque, a voucher, or a donation to Samaritans or Railway Children. You cannot change the method after you submit.
Automated Delay Repay
Automated Delay Repay covers Advance tickets bought on GWR.com, GWR Touch pay as you go around Bristol, and seasons on a GWR smartcard bought on GWR.com. You need a Delay Repay account with the same email as your GWR account, and smartcard users must tap in and out. When GWR finds a delay of 15 minutes or more it emails you within 48 hours with the claim filled in. You accept, change or reject it. It pays the same as a claim you make yourself.
Cancelled trains and missed connections
If your GWR train was cancelled, GWR works out the delay from the next train you could have taken. If you gave up on the journey or never started it, that is a refund from wherever you bought the ticket, not Delay Repay.
If a late GWR train made you miss a connection and you had left plenty of time, GWR will get you to the destination on your ticket, and you may be able to claim if you arrived 15 minutes or more late. GWR only handles claims it caused first. If another company's train made you late, GWR passes the claim to them and tells you.
Worth knowing
- Compensation is not usually offered during planned engineering, when the timetable was changed in advance.
- Appeals are made by logging in to your Delay Repay account or from the link in GWR's email.
- Extra costs beyond the fare can be claimed from GWR's customer support under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but not the same money twice.
Platted keeps the record for you
Platted keeps every journey you take with it for 13 months, with what a claim form asks for: the date, the stations, the booked and actual times, how late, why, and the operator. Each one copies with a tap. When a train arrives late enough to claim, Platted tells you once, then once more a week before the window shuts.
You claim on the operator's own site. Platted does not claim for you, sends the operator nothing and takes nothing from what you are paid.
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Every other operator is on the Delay Repay page.
Checked against the Delay Repay page on gwr.com, Automated Delay Repay and GWR's Passenger's Charter on 25 September 2026. If GWR changes its rules, its own page is right and this one is out of date: tell us at [email protected].